Re: Can / Should Extropians be Organ Donors?

From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Wed Feb 20 2002 - 17:44:30 MST


Tom Andrys wrote:
>
> The option has recently arisen to me to become an organ donor. I am a devout
> extropian in thought, and am trying to practice what is preached. So, for my
> decision, I turn to the largest collection of caring intellectuals available to
> me; you, my fellow Extropians.
> So I propose: is organ donation a valid, adhering extropian pursuit?

If you are interested in cryonic suspension, then organ donation is to
be specifically avoided, since having you dead long enough to remove the
organs generally leaves your brain in much worse shape than would occur
if you were run through the suspension protocol at time of death. You
should try to completely overwrite the notation on your drivers license
that asks if you are an organ donor, since I have heard of occurences of
people's licenses being marked by hospital personnel for organ donation
if they come in in a vegetative state (the same sort of institutions
that walk off with your watch and jewelry too, I imagine) with an
unmarked license.

I have a large black swath of ink blanking out the entire line on the
back of my driver's license. Now that I'm back to work, I plan on
signing up for suspension as soon as possible.

>
> I would assume that the basic, preliminary response to be "absolutly" because
> of the logic behind recycling (of organs). Also,one would be extending (and
> improving the quality of)a fellow being's life.

If you have no intention of preserving your own into the future, go for
it. Think about this, though: most donated organs go to people who
thoroughly abused their own organs, what makes you think they'll have
any more respect for yours? They may be thankful as all hell to live,
but usually not enough to do what is necessary to help them live more
than a few years after the transplant operation.

Robin Hanson's papers in the last few years have done much to illustrate
that health care such as this does markedly little to extend human life
or improve the quality of life, especially in respect to the expense
incurred in doing so, with the exception of improving the quality of
life of the doctors collecting the money...

Mike Lorrey



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